Why the Oral Tradition is Essential: Understanding the Link Between the Written Torah and Its Oral Interpretations

While many firmly believe that the Written Torah (Tanach) was given by God, they still claim that the Oral Torah was not divinely revealed. According to them, the words of our Sages and the holy Rabbis in the Talmud and halachic works are merely the product of human logic. They accept God’s commandments in the Written Torah but reject the authority of the Oral Law, dismissing it with the argument: “Who are they to tell me how to live?”

This idea is tempting, since unlike the Written Torah, the Oral Torah regulates the fine details of daily life, demanding self-discipline and restraint of desire. However, the Written Torah itself testifies clearly that it was given together with an Oral counterpart, as a living explanation transmitted to Moses at Sinai. As the Sages taught: “Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud, and Aggadah — even everything that an experienced student will one day teach before his teacher — was already said to Moses at Sinai.” (Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 2:4)

1. The Written Torah Cannot Be Understood Without the Oral Torah

Every rational person knows that a law book cannot be written in unclear language — certainly not one that attaches punishments, even death penalties, to its commands. In the Written Torah however, we find numerous commandments and prohibitions that are impossible to understand without the Oral Law. This itself proves that the Oral Torah was given simultaneously to explain and define these laws.

Following are just a few examples:

A. The Laws of Shabbat

The Torah commands: “Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whoever does any melachah (work) on it shall be put to death.” (Shemot 35:2)

What exactly is melachah? What kind of “work” is forbidden? The verse doesn’t say. How could one obey, or be punished for violating a law whose definition is unknown? The only logical answer is that Moshe received an oral explanation detailing the 39 categories of creative labor prohibited on Shabbat.

Indeed, in Bamidbar 15 we read that the Israelites found a man gathering sticks on Shabbat and placed him in custody, “for it had not been specified what should be done to him.” They knew his act was forbidden, but not what penalty applied — proof that the definition of forbidden labor was already known orally, though the punishment had yet to be revealed.

B. “Do Not Leave Your Place on the Seventh Day”

“Let no man leave his place on the seventh day.” (Shemot 16:29)
What is “his place”? His home? His city? The entire camp? The verse offers no definition. Clearly, a precise boundary law (techum Shabbat), was given orally.

C. The Commandment of Tefillin

“And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as frontlets (totafot) between your eyes.” (Devarim 6:8) What are we binding? What are “totafot”? The word appears nowhere else in Scripture! Yet Jews across the world, from Yemen to Poland, for thousands of years have all worn the exact same black boxes with parchment scrolls inside. How could such perfect uniformity exist without an unbroken oral tradition?

D. Circumcision

“And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin.” (Bereishit 17:11) Without the Oral Law, how would anyone know which piece of flesh to remove? Yet every Jewish community in the world performs the same procedure — a unity that would be impossible without a common oral explanation.

E. “The Fruit of a Beautiful Tree”

“You shall take on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree.” (Vayikra 23:40) The verse never specifies which fruit. Logically, Jews might have brought oranges, lemons, or grapefruits. Yet across all nations and generations, every Jew brings an etrog — and only an etrog. How could this universal agreement exist without the Oral Law?

2. The Written Torah Explicitly Mentions the Oral Law

The Torah itself refers to commandments taught orally. For example: “You may slaughter of your herd and flock that the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you.” (Devarim 12:21)

The phrase “as I have commanded you” is puzzling — nowhere in the Written Torah is there any instruction on how to slaughter animals properly. The details exist only in the Oral Torah, as Rashi comments: “This teaches that the laws of ritual slaughter were given orally, for where in the text were they commanded?” (Chullin 28a)

3. The Torah Scroll Is Written Without Vowel Points

The Torah has always been written without vowels or punctuation.
Without the Oral Law, we would have no way to know how to pronounce or interpret countless words. After thousands of years of exile, Jews from every corner of the earth read each verse with identical pronunciation and meaning — a miraculous consistency sustained only through oral transmission.

For example: “Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” (Shemot 23:19)
Here “milk” (chalav, with a kamatz) refers to dairy. But in Vayikra 3:17 it says: “You shall not eat any chelev (fat) or blood.”
The same three Hebrew letters appear, but one refers to milk, and the other to fat. Without the Oral Tradition, we might misread and conclude the Torah forbids all dairy products! The oral pronunciation preserves the true meaning.

4. Apparent Contradictions Within the Written Torah

Some verses seem to contradict each other, until the Oral Torah explains their context. For instance:

• “Seven days you shall eat matzah.” (Shemot 12:15)

• “Six days you shall eat matzah.” (Devarim 16:8)

Only through the Oral Torah do we learn that the seventh day is optional, and therefore not a contradiction at all.

The Written Torah is flawless and exact: not a letter is superfluous. When verses appear inconsistent, it is intentionall, to teach us additional details of law through the oral tradition.

Without the Oral Torah:

• The commandments of Shabbat, tefillin, kashrut, and countless others would be meaningless.

• The proper reading of the Torah would have been lost.

• Contradictions would remain unresolved.

The Written and Oral Torahs are inseparable parts of one divine revelation. As our Sages said: “The Written Torah is like the body, and the Oral Torah is its soul.”

Both were given together at Mount Sinai, forming one eternal, living Torah — the word of the living God.